The Armenian economy is sufficiently prosperous for there to be no need for traditional international bilateral aid from the UK. After the 1988 earthquake, the UK sent support and the Embassy and UK volunteers have made a real difference at the Lord Byron school at Gyumri, opened in 1990 by Margaret Thatcher during her first visit to the then Soviet Union.
The Delegation to Armenia had the opportunity to meet with prominent figures in the Armenian government and parliament during the programme. Discussions were dominated by the Armenian decision to seek membership of the Eurasian Customs Union and what the ramifications of this might be for the relationship with the EU, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and the approaching centenary commemorations of the Armenian Genocide.
The Steering Committee of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO met on 11 and 12 February 2014 on the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels. The session was co-chaired by Mr. V. Moreira, representing the European Parliament, and Mr. K. Örnfjäder (Sweden), who had been recently appointed by the IPU President as coordinator of the IPU delegation to the Steering Committee and, in this capacity, co-Chair of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO. The UK Parliament was represented by John Spellar MP.
Jonathan Djanogly MP attended the joint European Parliament/IPU Parliamentary Conference on the WTO in Bali, Indonesia on 2 and 5 December 2013 convened in connection with the Ninth WTO Ministerial Conference. As the UK’s representative among some 270 MPs participating, he joined counterparts in urging governments to place development at the heart of the multilateral trading system, taking into full account the special needs and interests of developing counties, particularly the least developed. The meeting helped ensure parliamentary views were registered as WTO members successfully negotiated a new multilateral trade deal which is anticipated to add around $100 billion a year to global trade, potentially creating an additional 21 million jobs.
Chair of the APPG for Ethiopia and Djibouti, Mr Laurence Robertson MP, led a delegation of UK Parliamentarians including Stephen Hepburn MP and Baroness Hooper on a visit to both countries from 20-26 November 2013. The key objective of the visit was to further strengthen relations between the United Kingdom and Djibouti through meetings with senior government ministers, parliamentary counterparts and business and trade representatives as well as seeing examples of UK business investment in Ethiopia.
We may have been at the opposite end of the globe but it wasn’t too difficult to find a few reminders of home. A Susan Boyle CD in a Mendoza record shop, a series of Johnnie Walker adverts as we arrived in Trelew airport in Chubut and a meeting with a major wine producer with a Glasgow based agent. All are to be found in Argentina.
They are one of the few countries in Africa to implement the 2003 Maputo commitment to invest at least 10% of their GNI into agriculture. They have consistently invested well in excess of 10% and there is no doubt about the Government commitment. I also felt that the Minister of Agriculture’s plans were well intentioned in a country where not only do mountains and drought conspire against large scale production, but also where farm produce comes from a hugely diverse range of production zones and also is grown by distinctly diverse cultures and communities
This Annual Parliamentary Hearing aimed to provide a parliamentary contribution to the on-going debate at the United Nations and in capitals on the development agenda after 2015, when leading development commitments are set to expire. Entitled Re-thinking sustainable development: the quest for a “transformational” global agenda in 2015, the Parliamentary Hearing was able to channel the views of parliamentarians directly into the UN’s deliberative process and build on the outcome of the 128th Assembly in Quito by considering the role of parliaments in the implementation of the new commitments for sustainable development as a universal agenda for both developed and developing countries.
The BGIPU, in partnership with the APPG on Trade out of Poverty, convened a briefing on 6 November by the Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint, Minister of State for Trade and Investment, on the preparations for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial to be chaired by Indonesia in Bali from 3 to 6 December. The briefing was chaired by the BGIPU Chairman, Robert Walter MP and participants from both Houses had the opportunity to discuss key challenges and expected outcomes with Lord Green who will also be one of the Vice-Chairs (along with counterparts from Peru and Rwanda) of the Bali Ministerial.
As part of ongoing work in the Balkans and Bosnia in particular, this was a visit for parliamentarians to see for themselves the issues and concerns surrounding the area. The programme was extremely busy for the 5 days we were there and we met many politicians and visited not only Sarajevo but Mostar and Banja Luka.
